Ireland won the final game of the 2014 European Championship, beating Wales 46-14 in Wrexham but it wasn’t by the 41-point margin they needed to claim the trophy, 2016 Four Nations and 2017 World Cup qualification.

Instead it’s Scotland who advance after their narrow defeat to France on Friday.

Wales, Ireland and France will take part in the 2016 European Championship alongside the winners of the 2014-15 European Championship B competition, which is currently being led by Serbia, with Russia, Italy and Ukraine the other participants.

The young Wales side leave this year’s European Championship tournament with no wins on the board, but a lot of positives.

The big plus point is the number of Welsh-born players have stepped up to the mark where others were unavailable and have produced some good performances.

They’ll be competing for places in Welsh sides in future years alongside the Super League stars that didn’t put their hands up to play on this occasion.

Ireland took the lead on four minutes when Will Hope forced his way over.

The visitors’ second came eight minutes later when Brad Hargreaves went over in the corner.

Luke Ambler went through a gap to score Ireland’s third on 18 minutes. Hargreaves went over for their fourth try on 32 minutes and the Irish were 22-0 up and half-way to the points they needed to clinch the trophy.